The actual marketing of your business on Vine is a cinch. The app lets you create “mini ads” quickly and easily at essentially no cost. Vine is appealing as a marketing tool because it understands and caters to consumers’ short attention spans. It provides small, bite-sized chunks of your brand in a new and personalized presentation to both prospects and existing customers. Is this a good thing? Yes, when it comes to digital advertising, people prefer brevity: A recent mobile study by the Interactive Advertising Bureau indicates that 44 percent of all respondents remembered seeing an ad while watching mobile video. Short 10- to 15-second spots were the most recalled format. That leads one to believe Vine’s six-second spots could be even more memorable to prospects and customers.
Hashtags are an important part of the video. Every video needs a hashtag. If you don’t currently use hashtags as part of your marketing strategy, you need to become familiar with them and use them strategically. For example, The Gap told the story of how jeans evolved from the company’s inception in 1969 and used the hashtag (#denimevolved). Think about what hashtags can draw attention to your company, its story, its products and services. Consumers love to learn about brands through stories, and Vine provides an inexpensive, easy way to tell your story.
Other ways to use Vine videos include encouraging transparency by featuring short employee interviews, or sharing interesting facts about your company. You could give people a look into your company’s culture by uploading behind-the-scenes snippets of a typical workday. Show a funny office event or occurrence. Humor is a great way to connect with prospects and customers alike. By creating transparency, you are also building trust with those that follow you, your prospects and especially with your customers.
Another important use for Vine is as a way to showcase your products and services. It is a great way to show what your products look like and how they work. A new product launch is a terrific opportunity to create a teaser that generates a good publicity buzz. Other ways to create a buzz or to get people talking are to create short videos of daily deals, new menu items for restaurants, or limited-time offers.
Crowd participation is the best form of engagement in social media. Ways to incorporate crowd participation using Vine is to encourage users to respond to questions in your video or to submit their own video for a contest you run. You can take your cue from Urban Outfitters. They launched one of the first Vine contests in cooperation with Converse. The contest asked users to submit their own six-second documentary of a day in the life of their Converse sneakers. They required a designated hashtag (#yourchucks). The best video submission won prizes from both Urban Outfitters and Converse. Users could view other people’s videos helping to create a sense of community and competition.
No matter how you use Vine to promote your brand the important thing is to get started with Vine. There is no doubt that Vine is an easy, powerful way to integrate video into your marketing strategy. Studies are proving the importance of short, brief videos, and how influential they can be to prospects and to your existing customers-especially when they tell a story, and engage your public.